Partner Article

Leading children’s charity to improve efficiency with integrated system from m-hance

Coram, the UK’s first children’s charity, is implementing an integrated finance and eProcurement solution from m-hance to improve the speed of management reporting and ensure greater financial control. m-hance’s system will halve the time it takes Coram to complete its monthly bank reconciliation process and provide efficiency savings up to £20k per year by eliminating manual, paper-based purchase-to-pay procedures. The planned go-live is December 2013.

Founded in 1739, the Coram group of charities has progressed in recent years through an extraordinary period of transformation, growing its income to increase the number of children and parents it helps directly by more than 500 per cent. Following the charity’s rapid growth it sought an integrated solution to improve efficiency and provide more timely and accurate financial information for reporting purposes.

Velou Singara, Chief Finance Officer of Coram Group comments, “m-hance’s system will bring together key financial and budgetary information in a single framework to enable us to better control our costs and quickly extract complex data to create customised reports. By reducing manual administration tasks we will be able to complete our monthly bank reconciliation process in two days instead of four, ensuring more time is devoted to analysing statistical trends which will assist us to better plan for the future.”

Max Glazer, Finance Manager of Coram Group, says, “We needed to replace a proliferation of standalone systems which have become restrictive and unproductive as we have expanded. m-hance’s integrated solution will provide us with greater transparency and faster access to financial information in a clear and concise format to enable us to make more informed decisions as we embark on our next phase of growth.”

m-hance’s end-to-end solution will replace Coram’s standalone systems and automate a number of manual processes to reduce administration costs. The finance system’s integrated bank reconciliation module, Bank Management, uses rule-based matching functionality to automatically reconcile cash transactions to an imported bank statement, eliminating manually intensive processes and input errors. The system’s advanced reporting functionality will also improve financial transparency by highlighting potential bank errors, unexpected charges or missing transactions to provide tighter financial control.

The eProcurement and spend analysis functionality from m-hance’s integrated Purchase Management solution will streamline Coram’s purchase-to-pay processes by replacing inefficient paper-based procedures. Authorised staff will be able to easily submit and track the approval status of purchase invoices and requisitions and confirm the receipt of goods ordered electronically in a single web-based system. The system will also enable Coram to build hierarchies for approvals and to check against budgets, preventing maverick spending while providing enhanced visibility of purchasing commitments.

Velou adds, “m-hance’s user-friendly solution will improve productivity by ensuring that accurate expenditure information is readily available to budget holders and remote-based staff. Eliminating inefficient administration processes will also support our drive to become paperless and provide us with cost savings of up to £20k per year. This saving will assist us to further strengthen our services to make a greater difference to the lives of children and young people across the country.”

-ENDS-

Notes to Editors

About Coram www.coram.org.uk

Coram has been creating better chances for children since 1739, and in addition to its acclaimed work in adoption, provides creative therapies, supported housing for young people and a wide range of other programmes to support children and young people. Also part of the Coram group of charities are Coram Life Education, which delivers health and drug awareness programmes to more than 850,000 children nationwide, Coram Children’s Legal Centre, a leading provider of free legal advice and representation for children and their families, including the national Child Law Advice Line and Coram Voice, is an independent national charity committed to empowering children and young people in care and in need and campaigning for lasting change to improve their lives

Based on its historic campus near King’s Cross, Coram has a turnover of over £11m and employs over 200 staff. Over 90p in every £1 is spent on Coram’s charitable purpose.

About m-hance www.m-hance.com @m_hanceSoftware

m-hance is a UK-based company providing innovative and functionally rich business software solutions to 2400 mid-market sized organisations including Innocent Drinks, RFU, Viridor, Millennium Hotels, Make-A-Wish, Hewden and Endsleigh Insurance. m-hance’s core solutions offering consists of financial management, CRM, enterprise social networking, SharePoint, HR & Payroll, managed services and software development in a variety of vertical markets including distribution, manufacturing, not-for-profit, professional services and infrastructure.

m-hance has been formed following the acquisitions of Calyx Software, Gyrosoft, Trinity Computer Services and elements of MentecPlus, Touchstone Group and Maxima Holdings plc. m-hance is currently supported by 230 staff from offices in Manchester, London, Dublin, Glasgow and the United States. m-hance also has offshore development capabilities in India.

In September 2013, m-hance was ranked in 40th position in the Tech Track 100 league table as one of the fastest-growing private technology companies in Britain after achieving record sales growth of 79 per cent.

Press Contacts:

Ben Carey, PR Manager, T: 07713 196971 e: ben.carey@m-hance.com @BenCareyUK

Collette Jones, PR Assistant, T: 07980 923349 e: collette.jones@m-hance.com @Collette_Jones_

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ben Carey .